


Heartbreak

by hailingstars



Series: Febuwhump [16]
Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, Spider-Man: Homecoming (2017)
Genre: Adopted Peter Parker, Dead May Parker (Spider-Man), F/M, Febuwhump, Grief/Mourning, Heartbreak, Mother's Day, Parent Pepper Potts, Parent Tony Stark, Tony Stark Acting as Peter Parker's Parental Figure, family movie night is a big deal
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-17
Updated: 2019-02-17
Packaged: 2019-10-30 14:29:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,996
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17830331
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/hailingstars/pseuds/hailingstars
Summary: Peter gives Pepper lilies twice. She cries both times.





	Heartbreak

**Author's Note:**

> Hey! Happy Sunday! 
> 
> A quick note that this is a companion to other Febuwhump story, Amputated (the one from Pepper's POV), but you don't have to read that one to understand this one. Just wanted to noted it here, for everyone who has read that one, why this universe may seem familiar.

Spider-Man stood at the end of a driveway in a residential area, staring at flowerbed filled with most perfect lilies, and having a moral dilemma. He couldn’t take the lilies, but he had to take them. Flower theft was still theft, and Spider-Man was no thief, except lilies were Pepper’s favorite, and she deserved all the lilies. She also had a hatred for stealing, so Peter had made the decision to leave the flowers in the dirt. 

Until he saw the backend of the car in the driveway, stuck with crude bumper stickers regrading anything and everything all three of Peter’s families hated about the world. 

He snagged the lilies from the ground. He took them for Pepper, but also May. He imagined if she stuck around as a ghost, it’d be to haunt people like that, brave enough to flaunt hateful ideas on the back of their cars. 

He felt proud, like a good son, as he swung, one-handed, back home to the penthouse. More proud than if he would’ve brought Pepper flowers inside of a store with Tony’s credit card, with money he didn’t earn and therefore wasn’t really his. 

The lilies were a bit ruffled from flight by the time Peter landed on the balcony, and more he walked inside to present his gift, he straightened them out the best he could. They still were still wild, but somehow perfect, and he was still quite proud of himself as he stalked across the penthouse’s living room, ripped his mask from his face and held them out to Pepper like an offering. 

Her eyes got teary, and Peter didn’t miss the look of concern flash across Tony’s face. 

“Oh Peter, these are beautiful,” said Peter. She put them down on the counter, then stood abruptly. “I just need… I just need to go to the bathroom.” 

She fled, wiping as single tear from her eye as she went, and Peter watched her disappear into the hallway with a frown. His shoulders slumped. That hadn’t been the reaction he’d been looking for. Tears, maybe, but not sad ones. 

“It isn’t you,” said Tony. “She got some bad news today. Her uncle died.” 

“Oh,” said Peter. 

He sunk into a chair next to Tony and scratched his head. Grief was odd when it didn’t belong to him, but still heartbreaking. He knew what it felt like, and he hated it that Pepper, who deserved all the lilies, who always stayed so strong for him and Tony, had to feel like that way. 

“How do we fix it?” 

“When I figure it out, I’ll let you know,” he told him. “For now, just behave, alright? Keep your Spidey misadventures to a minimum and keep your clothes off the floor. That drives her crazy.” 

Peter couldn’t help another frown, another eyeroll, that came with Tony telling him to behave. He was always behaved, and his misadventures as Spider-Man, those occasions where he got in over his head and needed Iron Man to bail him out, well they were becoming few and far between. 

It wasn’t time for any of those arguments, though. Secondhand grief had been passed down to both of them. 

“Okay.” 

“Good man,” he told him. He gave him a hug goodnight and disappeared down the hall just like Pepper had. 

Peter’s eyes fell back on the deserted lilies. He put them in vase, scooted them into the center of the kitchen table, then retreated to his own bedroom. He picked up his dirty clothes off the floor and disappeared into his dreams. 

The next morning Peter sat at the table across from Tony, quietly eating the breakfast he’d made for them and finishing up his homework. Pepper grabbed both their attention when, to their surprise, she emerged from the hallway, dressed in full work attire and looking ready to conquer the day. 

She grabbed an apple from fruit basket and mumbled something about being late for a meeting. 

“Uh, Pep?” said Tony. “Are you sure you wanna go to work today?” 

“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I?” She gave Tony a quick peak on the lips, then her eyes fell on the lilies. “Those really are beautiful, Peter. I love them. Thank you.” 

She gave Peter a kiss on the cheek, and then got into the elevator and left them. 

“That was weird, right?” asked Peter. He hadn’t gone to school for a good week after Ben died, and longer after May. 

Tony shrugged, and Peter finished his food, finished his homework, and went to school. 

School that day was just time between breakfast and dinner, which were pretty much the same. Tony and Peter sat across from each other, worried about Pepper, who was working and therefore not eating with them. The rest of the week wore on just like that, and Peter was lucky if he even saw Pepper, for five seconds at a time, passing in the halls of the penthouse. 

“Everyone grieves in their own way, Pete,” said Tony, after Peter expressed his concerns and while they settled down on the couch. A giant bowl of popcorn sat between them, and the queued movie began to play. 

It was movie night. Pepper was working, and over on the kitchen table, a vase of lilies was welting. Once the movie was finished, Tony went to bed and Peter tossed the flowers in the garbage. 

*

 

Peter behaved. He did well in school, like always, and he toned down his more dangerous Spider-Man activities. Anything that could turn into a crisis, he avoided, and he came home on time, came home ten minutes earlier than his curfew, that he once complained about being too soon. He kept his dirty clothes off the floor, but it was still just him and Tony at the dinner table each night. 

It’d been one week since the funeral, two weeks since Pepper’s uncle died and also, two weeks since all three of them attended family movie night. It didn’t feel right. He and Tony were a constellation missing its brightest star. 

It was a Thursday night when Tony appeared in his bedroom. 

“I checked your credit line,” said Tony. Peter deflated, went slack in his desk chair and dropped his pencil. He didn’t want to have this conversation again. “I give you an allowance so you’ll spend it.”

“I did spend some this time. I – “

“You spent a grand total of 12.31,” said Tony. 

“That’s all I need.” 

Tony proceeded to go inside Peter’s closet and return into sight with his favorite pair of tennis shoes. He shook them up and down, the sole of the shoe flapped. 

“These shoes tell a different story,” said Tony, and Peter pouted as Tony hijacked the computer he’d been using for homework to bring up a store webpage. “There’s this amazing thing called online shopping. Oh look, it’s your Converses, only they’re brand new and not falling apart. If only you had a magic card, with magic numbers, to buy them with.” 

Peter continued to pout, even as the man backed off and let him regain control of his computer. 

“If you don’t start spending your allowance each week, you’re grounded.”

“What? That’s not – “ 

“-And we can’t have movie tomorrow night,” said Tony. “Something came up with the team, so you’re off the hook.” 

Peter frowned as he watched Tony leave his room. It was true that he often complained about the mandatory movie nights, but he missed them, missed them when they were a family affair. Without their brightest star, there didn’t seem to be anything holding them together. 

He pulled out his credit card, and bought the shoes, then gave up on his homework in favor of going to bed early. He grabbed Fred, a stuffed dog from his childhood, one that now reminded him of both May and Pepper and held it close as he tried to fall asleep, as he was haunted with thoughts about how he somehow lost both of them to death, in two very different ways. 

*

Peter punched Flash. 

One second he’d been listening to him make a nasty comment about his dead relatives, the next his fist was colliding with the side of his face. Peter wasn’t even sorry as he sat across from Flash in the administrative office. He held a bag of ice to his face, and a glare in his good eyes. Peter didn’t care. He didn’t feel the slightest bit of guilt at all until he heard the familiar sound of heels clicking down the hall of Midtown. 

He’d expected Tony to sign him out of school. He could handle Tony’s lectures, but he couldn’t handle Pepper’s unreadable silence as he followed her out to the car. He made her leave work early. He disappointed her when she was still grieving. 

He put his against the cool window glass and tried to make himself small as the car pulled away from the school. 

“Peter – “

“-I’m sorry. Flash just said – and I – I couldn’t take it anymore. I wasn’t thinking – I didn’t mean for you to be inconvenienced like this – I know it’s a bad time - “

“Peter, it’s okay,” said Pepper. “They told me what he said. I would’ve given him two black-eyes.” 

Peter lifted his head from the window and looked at her. 

“And you’re no inconvenience to me,” she told him. “I… was actually relieved to get the call, actually, to get away from work. I think I’ll take a couple of days off.” 

“Really?” 

Pepper offered a faint smile and Peter dived across the seat to give her a hug. 

“I missed you,” said Peter. 

“I missed you, too.” 

When they got back to their building, they ran into Tony into in the lobby. He was on his way out, to whatever Avengers business had called him away, but Pepper put a stop to it. 

“Whatever it is, cancel it,” Pepper told him. “We’re having family movie night, and it’s mandatory.” 

Tony looked like he might argue. For a couple of seconds, his eyes flickered back and forth from the elevator to the front doors. He made the wise decision, though, and followed them back up to the penthouse, where they ordered an ungodly amount of pizza and plopped themselves down in front of the TV for a double feature. 

He and Tony exchanged a smile through the darkness, on the couch. Their brightest star was back. They were a constellation, even if each one of them were still connected to other stars that had gone dim. 

*

On Mother’s Day, Peter bought Pepper more lilies, a box of her favorite chocolates and a card that declared her the most badass mom. He handed the cashier his credit card, the one Tony gave him and made him use, feeling like a proud son. He hadn’t earned that money, but somehow it was still his anyway. 

That time when Peter handed Pepper the lilies, she was already crying. He put the chocolates and the card on the table as she blew her noses with a Kleenex and Tony stood by, not concerned, but with a decidedly strange look in his eyes. 

“W-what’s going on?” asked Peter. “Did someone else die?” 

Pepper laughed, and more tears fell from her eyes. She took Peter’s hand. “Peter – you’re going to be a big brother.” 

“Wait, really?” 

Tony and Pepper exchanged looks, and this time, there was concern. 

“We don’t want you to feel like you’re any less of the family because – “

“-are you kidding?” asked Peter. “This is so awesome! Which room are you putting the baby in? Is it a boy or a girl? Oh my god, I have to go buy him some Spider-Man onesies!” 

Peter bolted back to his room. He heard Tony make a comment about deactivating his credit card before he shut the door behind him. He paid no attention to it. It was Tony’s fault anyway, and now it was Peter’s younger sibling who’d reap the benefits.


End file.
